Chapter Fifty-Six #2
I push off toward them, but immediately I’m torn away. I fight, my adrenaline waning, crashing as the world slows down, and I watch as Kai pulls something from beneath his shirt, coal black with a daggered edge—
And plunges the blade into Alastair’s stomach, before yanking it up, cracking through his ribs and sternum like spokes on a bike wheel, crack crack crack, splitting him nearly from naval to throat before the force of the blow sends Alastair soaring back several feet, knocking into the giant bronze cross at the helm of the pulpit.
He falls to the ground in a heap, guts spilling across the carpeted platform.
“Dad!” Lucas screams.
Behind me someone heaves, and the stench of vomit fills my nose.
Kai is on his knees, his head in his hands, shaking so violently that he can barely stay upright. Something swirls around him—from him—not quite shadow, not quite starlight.
I can feel it. His anguish. His terror. I can feel the guilt. The hatred. The vindication.
Everything he is, I am too.
I thrash against the Guardians trying to restrain me, Kai’s pain tinder to my own rage.
He kneels next to Alastair’s body, the cross above them swinging from side to side. The force of the impact must have knocked the bottom loose.
I see it play out slowly. The long, bronze nails as they wiggle free of the concrete wall. The metal scraping, a keening yowl echoing through the nave.
“Kai! Move!” I scream—or at least I think I do, but my mouth is screwed shut, too terrified, too frozen to make a sound. And yet he scrambles to his feet like he heard me anyway.
But he’s not fast enough.
Gasping, tears well in my eyes as I shock the hands holding me back. The chapel grows quiet as we all watch the cross fall.
It’s mere inches from Kai’s head when a braid of vines wraps around him and yanks him back, concaving his body as it drags him like a rag doll.
The cross crashes to the ground, burying Alastair beneath it.
On the other side of the room Lucas is panting, tears streaming down his cheeks.
Kai lands several feet away, his face pale but his eyes sharp.
I know what he’s thinking.
Why would Lucas do that? Why would he save him?
I’m confused, but it doesn’t matter. We’re still outnumbered, and I’m beginning to fizzle, the static dulling to pins and needles.
The hood in front of me grabs me by the collar and pulls me down. I reach for the void where their eyes should be and jab. When they draw back, I grab the feathered mask and rip at it until the strap snaps, the force of it loosening the hood as it falls back from their face.
Dr. Rogers stares at me, her vicious blue eyes like a crystal knife to the gut. When they widen, I’m confused until I hear the thud of a body behind me. I whirl around to find another mask on the ground.
Another exposed face.
Mr. Hyde has been knocked out cold. And standing over him, chest heaving, is Sam. Mahogany eyes red rimmed and framed by dark lashes, their glasses marred by a crack across the lens.
“What—?”
I don’t have time to finish my question as Sam pushes me aside, cocks their arm back, and releases their fist into Dr. Rogers’s face. She slumps to the ground too.
“Ahh!” Sam hisses, bouncing on their toes and inspecting their quickly bruising knuckles. “What the fuck! Jiujitsu did not prepare me for this!”
When I search for Kai, I’m met instead with black hair slicked back and glistening.
Daisy is on a Guardian’s back, her arm around their throat in a choke hold.
They spin, flinging her across the ground.
Screaming, I run to her side, my hands spreading out, the falling rain accumulating in the blink of an eye and blasting the hood in the chest.
Kai is facing Lucas who’s wrapped him up in his web of vines. Sam and I take off. They run to help Daisy, and I head for Kai. Another person joins me at my side, blood trickling from her nose.
“Missy?” I ask, too confused to say much else.
“What?” she scoffs. “Why should you get to kick all the ass?”
Shaking my head, I try to regain focus as she yells across the room.
“Lucas, let him go, you bastard! You’re on the wrong side, and you know it!”
“It’s too late now,” he says, his voice trembling, his stolen magic waning. I can’t tell if the hesitation I hear is fear or regret.
“It’s never too late,” I warn, splaying my fingers as I approach him slowly. “You’re still in there, I know you are. You’re hurting, but I am too. So is Kai… We can still fix this. Don’t make me do this. Please.”
He shakes his head, blinking slowly. Blood trickles from his nose. He swipes at it and stares down at his hands. When his eyes meet mine again, they’re devoid of humanity.
“You can’t fix me, Harper, because I’m not broken.”
He raises his hands, but I don’t wait to see what he’ll do next. Instead I release my power into his chest, the force propelling him back. He falls, his head cracking against the protruding leg of a nearby pew. Blood leaks from the side of his mouth.
Immediately the vines around Kai’s body wither and die.
I nearly vomit.
I don’t recognize myself as I turn around and face the remaining Guardians, their features still obscured, generations of tradition compelling them to hide their identities.
They stand at perfect intervals, challenging us. I can tell from the set of their shoulders that they don’t want this to be over, but I’m ending it. Right here, right now.
When I’m sure they’re all looking at me, I climb onto a pew.
“Who’s next?” I snarl, tears streaming down my cheeks.
Mr. Hyde and Dr. Rogers rush forward and grab Lucas under the arms. As they pull him toward the entrance of the chapel, his head lolls, his limbs limp. I can’t bring myself to see if his chest is moving. If he’s breathing.
Dread pools in my belly as Mr. Hyde points a shaking finger at Kai. “You will regret this, Malachi Matsoukas, traitor to your own blood! Treason against the Guard is punishable by death!”
Kai says nothing as they turn and flee through the front doors.
Daisy and Sam just stand there, frozen as they watch the Guardians retreat.
Missy stares at me as I climb down from the pew, exhaustion overtaking the resolve that was on her face only a few moments ago.
When the quiet of the surrounding forest rings in my ears, I fall to my knees and finally let the dark consume me.